The “Brotherhoodization” of the Arab World

No one benefits from the recurrent arrests which the Muslim Brotherhood is subject to in Egypt, the latest being what took place a few days ago in Mit Ghamr, except the Brotherhood itself. Indeed, this kind of persecution is renowned for strengthening the core of ideological parties, as well as the arsenal of means they use to deal with the government, according to an opinion prevalent in partisan circles.

Moreover, harassment from here and annoyance from there against the largest opposition party in Egypt are things that will not, in the eyes of the Brotherhood and its supporters, lead to restricting their activity, but rather will contribute to improving their image for common citizens who observe the deterioration of the government and its apparatus, as legislative and presidential elections draw near in Egypt. Harassment in the past did not prevent a “deal” from being reached between the Brotherhood and the government, one that ensures for the Islamic organization a fixed share of seats in the People’s Assembly, according to the latest press interview by the Chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Mahdi Akef.

Beyond the political hunts that indirectly benefit the hunted, one can speak of a type of “political” practice spread by the Brotherhood in Egypt over the past two decades and popularized by their counterparts and peers throughout the Arab world. And if the list of “issues” raised by Brotherhood MPs before the Egyptian Parliament – most of which are concerned with the personal or public affairs of artists, as well as with journalistic and literary writings and with dubious fatwas – is ever transgressed, this is indicative not only of the narrow-mindedness of the Brotherhood and of its efforts to forcibly impose its values on society, but also of the inability to understand the broader meaning of politics.

One could state many examples of the damage caused by the multitude of television “preachers”, who barely disappear from one channel before appearing on another, and who seem to have taken control of the system of mores and values prevailing in Egypt and beyond it in the Arab World, especially as most of them are from among those who have received only half a religious education, forming the ideological “vanguard” of the Brotherhood. These kinds of sermons, which blend the current trend of consumerism with a partial and deficient understanding of tradition, impedes in the most severe way any focused efforts towards progress and modernization, efforts which Arab and Muslim peoples are in the most dire need of today.

The distance seems short between the cultural and social climate that pleases the Brotherhood and puts it at ease, and the political climate which it seeks after. This appears in the form of refusal to realize and understand if one compares the scarcity of its power and paucity of its influence to the hegemony and influence that the Brotherhood has in popular circles (or “society”). Such a comparison reveals the Brotherhood’s lack of a political and economic program that would support their looking after what they consider to be virtues and concern for public morals.

If what Mohammed Mahdi Akef said about the deal that ensures the share of MPs in the People’s Council obtained by the organization and about his wishes and those of the security apparatus meeting over not making a “ruckus” is not surprising, then – to the same extent – neither is the Brotherhood not moving to straightforward opposition to the government, despite all the elements of opposition between them that appear on the surface. Indeed, what is clear in this approach is that the organization does not know quite exactly how to draft policies that go beyond topical opposition to this or that issue, most of it no more than stances condemning the shows of singer Beyoncé Knowles or of female Arab singers who have come to form a major source of pretexts for intervention by Brotherhood MPs in past years.

Leaving politics and focusing on this kind of “ethical” opposition reveals in its depth the vacuity of the program which the Muslim Brotherhood calls for. Egypt is only one sample, but the stances and opinions of the Brotherhood are imitated throughout the Arab World and across it.